Around 1,300 acres in Osteen could be preserved by Volusia County government using millions of taxpayer dollars.
The County Council is expected to consider May 5 whether to spend $20.1 million in Volusia Forever dollars to buy the River Bend Ranch property in Osteen. The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at council chambers at county headquarters at 123 W. Indiana Avenue in DeLand.
The seller is River Bend Ranch Reserve LLC, of Oviedo. Alan Ashlock is the manager of the LLC.
While the county uses funding partnerships for Volusia Forever, this would be a purchase solely by the county, according to county documents. The county would also manage the property as conservation land.
Volusia Forever is funded by taxpayer dollars paid by property owners countywide, who each annually chip in 20 cents for every $1,000 of taxable property value.
River Bend Ranch has miles of waterfront access, hundreds of wetland acres
The property is at 1411 Osteen Maytown Road, according to county meeting materials.The property includes about two miles of St. Johns River-front property and 1.3 miles along Deep Creek, which is a St. Johns River tributary.
“The property lies within the St. Johns River floodplain and supports natural water storage, filtration, and flood attenuation for the Middle St. Johns River basin,” according to the county.
The property’s water frontage and other features align with Volusia Forever’s “four conservation purposes,” according to the county.
Among other things:
The property contains environmentally sensitive lands. Habitat includes “longleaf pine and sandhill habitat, cypress swamp, freshwater marsh, wet prairie, cabbage palm hammock and mixed wetland hardwoods,” according to the county. It’s in the Florida Wildlife Corridor.
The property has about 561 acres of wetlands.
It’s also next to Deering Preserve at Deep Creek, a 1,385-acre county owned property. Adding the new property would allow for expanding “public access for hiking, wildlife viewing, paddling, and fishing.”
Voters first approved taxing themselves for Volusia Forever in 2000 and reauthorized the program in 2020 for another 20 years. As of April 7, the 2020 program had protected about 7,000 acres and invested about $40.9 million, according to the Volusia Forever program transparency dashboard. That includes $27.7 million in partner funding.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia could spend $20M to preserve 1,300 acres in Osteen
Reporting by Sheldon Gardner, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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